http://www.realityunwound.com forever

(See my new blog at www.realityunwound.com)

Jim Morrison said it, This is the End.* It's a dark, brooding, melancholy sort of tune that was frankly out of touch with reality. He apparently didn't take into account that, well, it really wasn't the end.

Morrison died a rock-star death 4 years later, but even in that it takes a Shirley McClaine brand of arrogance to think that just because it's the end for you it's the end for everyone (incidentally, on the day Jim Morrison died, Paolo Montero was born, here's to new beginnings!).

So today's end of realityunwound.blogspot.com is the formal, official and final move to www.realityunwound.com. It's been 963 days since my first post here. There have been great gaps between posts, there have been short but intense flurries of posts, and there have been lingering moments of consistency. I've written about daylight savings time, the a multi-post discussion on the religion in culture , living a missional life, our response to the fall of church leaders, and most recently the election.

Why move? Tough to say really. It may be the desire to feel like I'm finally growing up, and for some reason buying a domain feels like settling into a house I own. Maybe I want to see if my voice resonates way with a different audience, and ownership feels like credibility. I don't know why, but I know I want to focus more on how belief interacts with the day to day happenings in the world... things like politics, culture, the family. Hopefully it's mostly because I'm trying to make it less about the world as it relates to me, and more about how I can better relate to the world for redemptive purposes.

So my sincerest thanks for reading, I'm honestly humbled that you stop by. Please don't stop. More than that, will you engage even more? I want to hear from you. I want to hear when the things in my brain don't match with reality. I need to hear real people say things like, "in a perfect world that works, but..." or better yet, "Your conservative ideology fails to take into account..." My hope for my new corner of the web is that together, we can forge ahead and create real solutions to real problems. I have great faith in people, especially people who listen for the still small voice leading through the wilderness. Don't lurk. Let me know you're there. Challenge my thinking, don't let me get sloppy. Most of all, let's be a generation that makes a positive impact and leaves a positive footprint.

If what I write is worth reading, tell someone else. If what I write is trite and banal, tell me. Most of all, and in every situation...

Feel the love, be the ball.

Special shout out - Newcom's, I changed the background just for you. May the remnants of our past be forever be readable!

*Note: The song, "This is the End" is most likely about the end of a relationship with his girlfriend, not the end of the world. But it made for a less interesting post that way.

http://www.realityunwound.com

Well, the transition is beginning. I made a new post at my new site... www.realityunwound.com. Just know that it is still VERY much under construction. You may think, "wow, hyper-minimalism. Interesting." That's not the case. My good friend Daniel from Grow Development and his wife Amanda from The Mom Crowd are helping me get launched. They are waiting on me, so it's all my fault for its sparse appearance. It will change. I promise.

I'll be posting here less and less, and over there more and more. So bookmark www.realityunwound.com and stop by. Make suggestions, leave comments, poke fun... whatever it takes! Oh, and tell a friend.

Five o'clock thoughts

It's been a long week, and here I am, a mish-mash of thoughts and blinking synapses. Here are a few of the things rattling around in my brain.

1. Toby Keith feels my pain - I don't' often think of Toby Keith, but I love the song, "I ain't as good as I once was, but I'm as good once as I ever was." It's not that it's got hooks, but it's a song that makes me look forward to getting older, but not in a sappy, nostalgic, "holy crap I'm going to die what is my legacy going to be," kind of way. Thanks for that Toby.
2. I'm building a website - Actually, I'm doing very very little of it. The guy whose helping me out mostly is this guy who does this for a living. He' very good, and I'm very grateful. You can go see what I've got going at www.realityunwound.com. It's still taking shape, but my hope is that it'll be an informative place where people will come and read things that they might not ordinarily read, and care about things in a new way. See what happens. Stop by often. Leave lots of comments. Tell everyone you know.
   
3. I care about political things - This last election wrecked me. It kills me to see something as huge, expansive, and nationally significant as one of the two major political parties in the United States have an absolute, complete, and total lack of leadership. You've probably noticed a turn in the topics of the posts here recently. I want to hear what you think, even if you think you don't care.
   
4. Joel Runyon cares - This summer, Joel Runyon stayed at our house for a week and it was great. He's a neat guy. I had a post up awhile back about what you'd like to see more of. Joel, because he cares, badgered me about the results. Well, participation was underwhelming, but the results were that 80% of you (that means 4) wanted to hear my random thoughts, and 20% of you (that means 1) wanted to know what I was listening to. That means 80% of you care about my random thoughts. I feel special. I think that means that only 5 people read my blog, which means that maybe I shouldn't have spent money on a website... wow, hindsight is a mutha.
5. I feel happy, oh so happy - Seriously. Life is good. I have a great family, I love what I do, the future looks bright, and God is good. Who could as for anything more?

So that's that. Five o'clock thoughts on a Thursday afternoon. If you're out there lurking, and you haven't dropped a line, I'd love to hear from you. Sooner than later I'm probably going to be switching over to www.realityunwound.com so stop by. Drop me a line. Share your thoughts. Tell someone else. Spread the word. Feel the love. Be the ball.

Don't do it!

President Bush met with President Elect Obama yesterday. Drudge Reports that Bush is pissed about Obama's people leaking the contents of the conversation. What would you expect?

But the information leak isn't the issue. The New York Times says this...

The struggling auto industry was thrust into the middle of a political standoff between the White House and Democrats on Monday as President-elect Barack Obama urged President Bush in a meeting at the White House to support immediate emergency aid. Mr. Bush indicated at the meeting that he might support some aid and a broader economic stimulus package if Mr. Obama and Congressional Democrats dropped their opposition to a free-trade agreement with Colombia...

Bad idea Mr. President. Don't do it! Pres. Bush doesn't want to look petty, small, or like he's standing in the way of progress so he has to dance lightly. However, Barry has only one concern here... It starts with "B" end with "A" and in the middle is "arackobam".

Here's how this breaks down as I see it.

Barry is asking Bush to allocate some of the "bailout package" to help the Auto industry (it was originally to be used for the financial industry only). Obama says the auto industry is vital to the health and prosperity of the United States and immediate action must be taken.

First, the auto industry is immensely important and something needs to be done. However, throwing money at it is not the answer. What's happens when the taxpayers foot the bill for billions of dollars, and nothing changes? Have you noticed how well the stock market has responded to the bailout? Have you noticed how confidence has returned to all the banks and now they're lending freely? Have you noticed how the impending doom of our economy could be averted if we would be patriots and sign this bailout package TODAY because tomorrow would be too late? Yeah. Well what if the auto industry responds in the same way? Then what? Well, two things...

1. Government owns our car manufacturing. So what? Governments are not created to be entrepreneurial, creative, or on the edge. They are created to be stable. If we are going to compete on a global market, we have to innovate. not simply be stable.
2. We foot the bill for a sub-standard and hopelessly stuck auto industry. That's right. Our tax dollars go to support an industry that can't support itself because it creates inferior products (because of #1 above). Because it will forever be substandard, it will forever be at the teat of an ever expanding government.
   

So here's the political happenings. If Bush signs this Auto Industry bail out and it continues to flounder (and it will, just like everything else), then that will be one more "final verdict on 8 years of failed policies in the Bush administration." The Pelosi-Reed coalition (of which Barry is a Jr. member) claims victory and points to the failure of conservatism. If the bailout works (and it won't, just like nothing else has) then Obama claims savioresque leadership by swooping in at the last minute and exercising leadership over the simple minded ex-President. By giving in to Barry's requests, it's a lose-lose.

It's time for President Bush to punt. I hate to say it, but I think it's that time. Immediately ask his party what they want to do, and follow their lead. Call Rep. Boehner, Sen. McConnell, and as many conservative minds as he can gather. Call Newt, Michael Steele, Huckabee, and any other right leaning mind he can find.

We tried the bailout, much to the chagrin of tax payers across the land. We crossed a line by making American Express a bank. It's time to stop. Draw a line in the sand Mr. President. Politically it's risky, but we must make the democrats and the newly elected President take full responsibility for each of their ideas. If it works, then we all win. If it doesn't work, then we still all win because we will be able to clearly see from whence the trouble has come. Stand up, and take a bow on your way out. Give your party an opportunity to fight for much of what has been lost over the last 8 years.

*NOTE: There's change coming. Tell your friends. Realityunwound.blogspot.com is moving.

(photo was on the front page of Drudge Report)

The voice of one crying in the wilderness...

There's been quite a bit of clothes tearing, hand wringing, and soul searching going on inside the confines of the Republican party. For the most part it's well deserved. It seems though that Sarah Palin is finally finding a supporting voice in the media, and even from within her own party, while the remnants of the Republican leadership wrestles with how to go forward in the much bluer halls of congress and the senate.

I know many people who pray, pray often, and pray hard are still reeling. They see no hope, no potential for anything even remotely positive to come out of what will hopefully only be the next four years.

I don't go that far. I most definitely wish Obama wasn't my President-elect, but I can't say that I would have been politically thrilled beyond all measure if John McCain would have won (I wanted Huckabee from the start, but would have settled for Romney, and finally taken McCain after Fred Thompson).

The thing I take comfort in is that power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Fears of a democratic congress run amok. Many envisioned a Guevara-beret clad puppet president sprinting hard toward the left to appease a dictatorial and elitist Democratic power structure. However, it seems that already the centrists in the party are standing up to be heard.

Throw into the mix what Scott Rasmussen (President of Rasmussen reports and polling) seems to think about Obama's mandate and I find solace. What comforts me most is that there is a vocal and credible contingent that, like me, sees this election not as an indication that the general populace has shifted far to the ideological left. Rather, our belief is that this election is more of a rejection of President Bush and his policies than an open embrace of a Reid-Pelosi-Obama liberalism.

In this strange amalgam of national emotion -fear, worry and dread at one pole contrasted with nearly messianic visions of redemption and restoration at the other - the extremists are still in the minority.

That's comfort for both Republicans and Democrats.

Most comforting is that even the majority of Democrats are closer to Joe Lieberman than they are to Plastic Pelosi and Scary Reid. Those that would hijack the left and make us all into card carrying socialists are no more a true reflection of the voice of the people than those on the right that would hole up in a compound with guns and a backwoods religion bearing little resemblance to what most of us would recognize or ascribe to.

So the hope for a conservative reassertion is not only alive, but I believe it's stronger than ever. In a rejection of the leftist conservatism of George Bush, the flames are fanned for a revival of true conservatism. Hold fast, stay firm, keep praying.

Most of all, talk to people and find out where they are at. Know what you believe, why you believe it, and keep talking about it with grace and compassion. Start now talking now about the things that you agree with President-elect Obama about (the power of tax-cuts as the way to a reinvigorated economy, for example). If we only talk about how we're against Obama, we'll only seem like bitter losers. Let's relentlessly cast vision that the parts of what's working for the Obama campaign are conservative principles. Build bridges, take back the truth. There will be a time to talk publicly and openly about the change that's coming. For now, let's just talk about what works. Let's talk about what we see that's good, and right. In that way, we will once again be the party of hope and change.

Hope Springs Eternal: when you're dead, it's easier to see your roots

McCain was soundly trounced by Barack Obama last night. In a moment of vulnerability, I called every single battleground incorrectly. I didn't figure McCain would win Pennsylvania, but I couldn't imagine him losing Virginia, I thought he'd squeak out Ohio, and I thought Florida would stay red as well.

I was wrong.

So this morning I'm disappointed. I think we're in for a long, hard road, but Barack Obama is my president, and I will do everything in my power to help America be a great place under his leadership.

I take a few things away from last night, however that can be really great down the road..

1. Barack Obama ran as a centrist - He didn't run largely on the radical left platform of Nose-Job Pelosi and Scary Reid. He won by supporting the second amendment and tax cuts. Those are the things Americans said they care about. As voters we need to carefully watch how he responds, especially in the first 100 days. He is still our President, accountable to the voters. The HOPE: if he has integrity, this will be at worst a Clintonesque administration. More liberal than I like, but not as liberal as it could be.


2. Republicans have been in the Wilderness - The link is to a great article at the Washington Post. Closely related to Obama's centrist campaign is the reality that this election was, as Obama has regularly stated, a final verdict on the Bush years. The HOPE: Bush was barely a republican president. Under him, Government swelled, spending skyrocketed, and the basic tenets of historical conservatism were blatantly and boldly violated. I still don't believe America has rejected true conservatism. I don't believe they've seen it since 1990 or so.


3. We can begin building again - My interpretation of last night is that the clearest mandate of all was for Republicans. It's time to go back and dance again with the one who brung us! It's time for a new leadership in the conservative movement, a new vision of the Republican party. The HOPE: there should be little questioning or bickering about what we should do with the old way. Last night was the death knell for Bush conservatism. Let's tip our hats and move forward.

We're in for a long ride, and I am going to pray for President Obama as often as I can. I'm challenged and I issue a few challenges:

• Get Informed - Information is out there. Stay informed, know who your congressmen and senators are. Know what they stand for. Think through the implications.
• Engage in the conversation - Conservative politics can't be mere idealogues, hashing out nuances of an overblown fiscal policy blah blah blah. It has to be about real solutions to the real problems real people are facing. Find out what they are. Offer them a solution.
• Be Gracious - Be above the fray. I don't like what happened in America yesterday. But I understand it. I have to play my part in building bridges. I can not compromise, and I can not stand alone.

So let our response to this election be the full support of our country. America has spoken, loud and clear. If we don't like what they said, our choices are to rage and rail and further demonstrate how out of touch and fragile we are. Or, we can accept what has come our way, bear up under the burden with grace, and win again the battles over values and ideas.

We can do it. It starts today. Let's go.

Part 3: Love the One You're With - shrinking the political divide by being who you are

Tomorrow, half the country will celebrate the change that we've all been waiting for.

Tomorrow, half the country will feel that we've irreversibly turned a corner toward doomsday.

It's bothersome that any personal schisms I may experience over this election will be only a microcosm of the divide in this country. Red states and blue states barely speak the same language, much less read from the same page.

The American dream has always been freedom from and freedom to. This was a place, formed and founded by dissenters. I fear we stand on the verge of a dark and deep precipice of divide where dissent is treason, and to the Blues, the Red's are always "the other guy."

I believe ever increasingly that politics matter a great deal. I am also wholeheartedly convinced that a real and robust faith speaks directly, clearly and precisely to the core of the conditions that define the political agenda at any given time...

1. Social issues aren't simply about some sort of human widgets. Social issues deal with actual people actually formed in the image of God. I can't be neutral on abortion because God is intimately involved in every single step of the creative process... even in utero.
2. Welfare doesn't work because we're not supposed to be dependent on any system or structure, but rather on God alone. It's not just about making sure that the poor have sustenance, it's about making sure that ALL people have a purpose and an opportunity to thrive
3. Fiscal policy isn't just about getting rich or being poor. It's about stewardship, so I have to ask what the best use of the money God has given me is. If I have the choice to invest money in a cause or a purpose that compels me, or giving it to a government (through higher taxes and wealth redistribution) that has never ever handled its money as well as I have (that's why communism hasn't ever worked), I want the freedom to invest it (give it) myself.

The current divide in our country is such a big deal precisely because my faith compels me to feel a a personal responsibility to do whatever I can to shrink the real and perceived gap between the two sides.

As a believer, I have a mandate to "be one [with others], even as the Father and I are one." (Jesus said that). I don't believe the unity we are called to can come primarily by political means, although I believe there are political implications. I believe it is my job as a believer to begin bridging that gap.

That doesn't mean slashing and burning my ideas and principles in the name of bipartisanship. It doesn't mean making good liberals into good conservatives by making a good conservatives into good left-center moderates.

That is, in all regards, a worthless shift.

It can't mean moral compromise because that denies the existence of real answers. It does mean a return to statesmanship and humility. It means reaching above and beyond ideological tags and searching for and promoting real solutions to peoples real problems. It means leaving the national platform and walking the streets. Most of all, I think it means seeing that "the Democrats," are as real people living in the same economic climate as me, faced with losing the same jobs, and the same crashing retirement system.

There are solutions, and I believe conservative solutions are the better solutions. What I as a conservative may not have is a broad base of trust. We don't have a widespread belief from society that we are working toward the greater good, not just our own good.

As a believer, that is my clarion call. As an American, that is my clarion call. One nation, under God compels me to seek unity (not compromise). The United States of America wasn't created to live in the midst of a wide and growing political split.

So between now and the 2010 midterm elections, what if the conservative base took to the streets and began talking to people who are different from us, sharing ideas and solutions. What if the Republican party became known as the party that walked the neighborhoods talking to the people and taking the initiative to share with them why big government isn't the answer?

That what I'm supposed to be doing anyway. I don't have to be something different to be an agent of healing in this land. I just need to be more of what I'm supposed to be.